For North American readers, July is a month to celebrate. We Canadians mark July 1 as Canada Day, in tribute to our 151 years as a nation; to the south, our friends and neighbours celebrate their 242nd birthday on July 4th. Happy birthday to all of us!

Just for the fun of it, however, I decided to search online to find out some of the wackier reasons given for declaring a holiday. Wacky is an understatement for some of these: July 1 also includes International Chicken Wing Day and Creative Ice Cream Flavours Day, while according to someone, July 4 also includes Sidewalk Egg Frying Day. Throughout the month these odd and bizarre days also include National Hot Dog Day and Unlucky Weddings Day.

As to the unlucky weddings day, sadly that's true for too many but not everyone. On July 17th of this year, hubby and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Yes, we've had our struggles (You haven't? Really?) but we made the commitment to stick it out and with the presence and help of the Lord, we're enjoying some of the happiest years of our lives together.

The Book of Proverbs was written primarily by Solomon, son of David, while most Psalms were penned by David. Although Proverbs doesn't specifically mention celebrations, throughout David's poetic expressions of praise to God, he reminds himself, his people and us, to remember the goodness of God. Here are several examples: